Getting back to the Pavilion was different this time than the last. Before it had been a quick stop. The night we spent waiting for the four and arranging everything had passed in a flash. Now though, now we were home. Our home. our place, that we actually owned. Not like the house Zeke bought. And speaking of my uncle, he was waiting for us when we got into the Pavilion.

"Hey, you're back." He said casually from his spot on the bench. To my shock, every other pavilion member was clear on the other side of the tent, not training, but trying to press themselves into the wall in the tightest possible configuration. When he saw where my eyes went he chuckled wryly. "Ah, sorry. I felt the trouble and figured I'd wait here for you to get out just in case. When that E-ranker picked his fight and I warned him off I might have been a little annoyed. My aura leaked a bit."

That certainly explained the looks of existential terror plastered across the faces of some of the most hardened battle maniacs I'd ever seen. I grimaced at him. "Yeah, about that." I held up the mask. "What the actual fuck? I've been wearing this thing on my face and it eats people? That's pretty messed up." I was still uncomfortable putting the mask back on, and had used my old scarf to cover my face on the way back up here.

Zeke cracked up. "I can't believe he actually triggered it. What a dumbass. I did warn him. I guess I was a bit too gentle with the aura. I didn't want to go full blast and fry a bunch of randoms." He shrugged. "As for the mask...it did its job. It was supposed to protect you. I can make you a new one if you want. A weaker one. But I have to warn you that including the defenses let me skirt the edges of what I'd normally be able to put into something like that. If I make a new one it won't be a thousandth as good."

I climbed up on the stands to drop down next to him bonelessly, letting the mask clatter to the ground. I wasn't worried it would break. He looked amused but didn't mention it. Callie followed me in, sitting next to me quietly and not saying anything. She'd been hovering since I killed Pietro. I'd been worried she would be horrified, but all I felt through our bond was a sense of worry. The others all headed in, giving us space as they went to check on the traumatized pavilion members.

"You know...I always figured this mask was too weird to be low level. How can I even use it? I assumed it was impossible to use gear too many ranks above you. This thing has to be at least E-rank to have killed that guy so easily. How come it didn't crush my soul?" Trying to leverage an item with that much Impact would probably do something dramatic like that. Either way, I knew it should be impossible.

He shrugged. "Because I cheated. There's an Impact seal on it. My Voltomancy can manipulate masks I make in ways that wouldn't normally be possible. It slowly releases portions of that power as you rank up. Still, that material has the toughness of a B-ranked wood. The emergency defenses I put on it are well within the tolerance level of something that durable."

Now that he mentioned it the thing HAD jumped right off my face before it ate the guy. Presumably so it could channel that Impact without crushing me. That was..."Zeke, what exactly can your ability DO? That sounds more like an AI than an Enchantment. Is this mask AWARE? Because I don't care how strong it is, I'm not wearing a living being trapped in a hunk of wood on my face."

He chuckled. "Don't freak out. It's not aware. That was a preprogrammed response, to use your computer jargon. A conditional enchantment. There are countless tiny runes on that thing you can't see, and they make some pretty complex instruction, but they aren't anything close to an actual entity. It's like a personal alarm. Someone too strong tried to hurt you so it went off."

I wasn't sure why that made me feel so much better, but it absolutely did. "Alright..." I said slowly. "What about Pietro, did you see when I..." I didn't know what his senses could do, but he'd been able to see Malachai well enough to scare him off. I cleared my throat. "Is that going to be a problem? Will the cult start trouble because he died here?" I'd been pretty confident when I said that wouldn't happen, but 'pretty confident' isn't 'sure.

My uncle actually sneered at me for the question. "Honestly. No. The Cult isn't going to attack a pseudo D-ranked planet. Nothing here is worth starting even a minor skirmish over." He paused. "Maybe you. At least to some of them, but the kid didn't know who you were. He was just some typical spoiled little elite who was far too confident in daddy. They're a credit a dozen back at the clan, and pretty much everywhere else. Regardless, no. They won't declare a war."

Callie cleared her throat. "What about the others?" I looked at her in confusion. "The rest of the team. They're four people right? Were they all down there? Or are we going to be meeting a team from the Cult with an alternate thrown in. That seems like something it would be good to know."

Shit, I hadn't even bothered to check that. I should have asked to make sure the rest of their team was around. Zeke didn't seem bothered, but then, I doubted the sun exploding and swallowing the planet would bother Zeke overly much. Being at B-rank couldn't possibly be good for your scale measuring problems in relation to normal people. Speaking of ranks, I'd gotten my wishes in on the way back, putting me that much closer to F-rank.

Yesterday's wishes were all used up on escape prep, though shockingly none of my teammates has actually triggered them. The spells had been keyed to potential lethal danger, which they'd all thankfully avoided, so they each had one in the pocket. Benny hadn't really engaged so much as stuck to the edges smashing things with a hammer, Jessie had let Randall do the fighting, and Callie had been working with me and our teamwork kept her from being exposed too much.

Sadly in order to afford a full on teleport all the way to the Pavilion they'd had to keep things specific, which meant limiting the time covered by the escape, but I didn't consider the wishes a waste even if they never triggered. Better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it. Still, between that last available wish and the other five I had on hand that put me at eighteen points added to my total, that much closer to rank up. My stats were looking pretty good actually. I'd added the eighteen points to my Creation, bringing it up to an even one hundred and sixty. I'd also gotten topped up with some of the reserved attacks from my teammates.

Wishmaster candidate status. G-rank.

Ability: Beginner Wish- Five times a day grant a Beginner wish in return for proper compensation. Wish must be feasibly achievable by the candidate's own efforts within a three day period with current statistics.

Might 160 Impact 12 Fantasy 180 Vitality 130 Focus 148 Perception

150

Creation 160 Progress to next rank: 940/1000 Stored: 10 shadow attacks(two in reserve waiting to be granted), 9 fire attacks, 10 triple strenth tranq blows, 8 triple strength density shifted attacks. 8 spider leg attacks, 10 heal bursts (26 reserve waiting to be granted), 10 gravity attacks, 10 shadow clone, 27 scan heals (I-rank ability ) Pet: Wolf named Jin Skills: Beginner Doom Sovereign Mastery,Beginner Enchanting Mastery (four charges per point of Impact), Lesser Cooking Mastery,Lesser Inventing Mastery, Lesser Stealth, Lesser Paired Dueling, Minor Piano Mastery, Minor Gymnastics Mastery, Minor Swimming Mastery, Minor Guitar Mastery, Minor Singing Mastery,Minor Poker Mastery, Minor Archery Mastery, Minor Boxing Mastery, Lesser Balam Mastery, Minor First Aid Mastery, Minor Herbalism Mastery

I'd gotten sick of not being able to tell how close I was without doing math, I'd tinkered around with trying to change the way I envisioned the stats themselves to surprisingly good results. As I checked my sheet though, I noticed something much more interesting. I'd been so caught up in Pietro dying and the fallout that I hadn't even noticed the change in my bond with Callie. My eyes snapped to hers. "Holy shit, Cal did your Paired Dueling Skill rank up to Lesser too?"

As I listed off my stats to her, I also explained how I did the whole progress bar tweak. It was mainly an exercise in Fantasy. The representation of our stats was itself part of the same system that gave us abilities, so it could be affected by stats. Not much, and not to any real use, but little alterations were more than possible. Once I finished she checked her own stats and shared them, confirming her rank up.

Calliope Reynolds. G-rank

Beginner Shadow Embodiment- The ability to control and shape shadows either molding them into constructs of imbuing them into specially prepared objects to enable enhancement and control. Might 198 Impact 12 Vitality 142 Fantasy 120

Focus

58

Perception

175 Creation 135 Progress to next rank: 840/1000 Pet: Wolf named Rellia Skills: Minor Tracking, Beginner Stealth, Beginner Trap Mastery, Beginner Disguise, Lesser Balam Mastery, Lesser Paired Dueling Beginner Shadow Manipulation Mastery.

Aside from the rank up, I was even more shocked to discover something else. "Wait...I'm closer to F-rank than you?" I stared at her in dumbfounded astonishment. Callie had always been stronger than me. I mean, granted, she still was. My stats were far too spread out, while hers were much more concentrated in her main specialties. Not to the extent of someone like Jessie of course, but she had nearly forty more Might than me, just to name one stat. Still, my total was actually higher now.

She sighed, giving me a fond smile. "Yes, idiot. For a while now. It's not a surprise. You've been working hard, and doing more than a bit of extra work with the Beast Lord Garden. I admit though, I didn't expect you to be a full hundred points more advanced. I guess I wasn't keeping track of your overall stats." It wasn't hard to notice, with the bond and my own knowledge of her, that her smile was a bit strained.

"Hey." I said reaching out to take her hand. "I get that it's weird, but don't forget we have the same end point. We're both stopping right before F-rank for the tourney, and we have a whole week to get you there. That'll be a hundred and five points." I paused. "Shit, that means we're going to be short. I have some of my elixir total left I can use to make up the difference for me, but we'll have to rush yours during the tournament itself."

She laughed sweetly and leaned up to kiss my cheek. "I know. I don't begrudge you the advancement. It's just weird. We met only a few months ago and you're already stronger than me. But I know we're a team and I'll catch up. The tournament should be a week or two long, so getting us both to the peak of G-rank in time shouldn't be a problem, don't worry so much."

Zeke rolled his eyes. "Well, this is getting uncomfortable for everyone who isn't you two. I'm going to go check on the minions I traumatized. Anything is better than watching you stare soulfully into each others eyes. Seriously, you two even make ME sick, and with my Vitality that shouldn't be possible." I laughed along with Callie as Zeke walked away. Things were scary in some ways, but I was also pretty lucky. I decided to focus more on that. The rest of it I could figure out as it came.